Thursday, August 05, 2010

Primavera

We heard of Primavera from a foodie friend of ours. We eat out a lot but for some reason we never heard of this place. What was really interesting about Primavera is that it is owned by a Thai guy who really knew his wines. Primavera has a reputation in town for the place to go if you are a 'wine lover'. With a reputation like that...this is the place for us to visit.

The first dish was Fritto Misto. When it was delivered; we were a bit surprised because it is not the usual fritto misto presentation. The deep fried calamari was wrapped around fried shrimp. The calamari & shrimp were deep fried to a golden brown, they were crispy on the outside and were fresh & firm on the inside. Very tasty.

The second dish was Tuna Carpaccio. The tuna was very fresh, sliced paper thin and tasted very nice. Really nice dish.

The next dish was a Rack of Lamb. Cooked perfectly, the lamb was very tender & juicy. The lamb tasted wonderful. The sauce was light but flavourful.

The next dish was Veal Osso Bucco. The veal was perfect...so tender & juicy. The sauce was thick, rich and tasty. A hearty dish that was very satisfying.

The next dish was Gnocchi with blue cheese cream sauce. We were still hungry after our main courses, so we ordered this dish. The home-made gnocchi were huge and they were firm yet tender. The cheese sauce was creamy & thick and very tasty. An Italian probably would have been shocked that we ordered such a heavy dish like gnocchi after our main courses, but we did not mind because it was so so good.

The next dish was deep fried Lemon Grass Chicken Wings. The chicken wings were deep fried to a deep brown. The lemon grass gave the chicken wings extra texture as well as an amazing flavour. Great dish.

The wine we brought was a 1997 Allegrini Amarone. It was time to drink the 1997 Amarone and it was an extremely interesting wine. The nose is definitely port-like with strong raisin and prune notes. However, it is much lighter and more complex on the palate than we would expect from the smell. The prune gives way to earth and cassis and smooth tannins. Really different and enjoyable.

Here is the very interesting part of my story of dining at Primavera. We were sitting on the mezzanine floor of the restaurant and a couple arrived to sit next to us. We noticed that they brought 2 white wines, 4 red wines and 2 bottles of champagne. So we thought there would be more people arriving for a birthday party or something like that. Boy were we wrong. All that wine was for the couple. All I could think was...WOW! We drink a lot (I really mean a lot), but I never saw something like this before. Anyway, to make a very long story short. We started talking to our neighbors. They really knew their wines. They had with them the most amazing names in wine. Stuff I have never had before and could only dream of drinking (due to the huge price tags). They were very generous and kept offering us wines...and of course we could not refuse. The owner of the restaurant finally came over and joined us and we kept drinking.......

The restaurant looks deserted and cleaned up is because we left the restaurant after 2:00 am, totally smashed. On top of that we had to work the next day. What I needed for sure before sleeping was an aspirin.

A really great evening; the home cooking style food was good and very affordable especially for Italian food and being on Thonglor. The service is very friendly & efficient. A very cozy & comfortable atmosphere.

But what makes the restaurant very enjoyable is the owner who is extremely friendly and knowledgeable about wines and that the people you may meet in the restaurant could be wine lovers and who can be very generous.

1 comment:

The last time I went here, I ran into the winemaker from Siam Winery, who was having a friendly blind tasting with her friends and kept sending over wine to us. So looks like it really is a place to make wine friends. And the owner is a sweetheart, too. This place is sort of an understated gem.